cloudy5

Q: Images won't import in Photos

I just purchased a MacBook Air and am having some serious issues moving my photos from my previous iPhoto to the new Photos app. First I tried exporting my 55GB iPhoto library and then importing it into Photos. It wouldn't import - it would get to 8% in Photos and then stall and a weird empty dialog box would pop up. I got frustrated and decided to just forgo my iPhoto albums I've been putting together for the past 12 years and just copy all the image files over instead of the actual iPhoto library. However, only about 10% of my photos would import into Photos. The others say they are "unreadable files" - reason: "unable to get metadata" -- HELP!!

 

Previously I was using iPhoto '11 v9.1 on a Macbook Pro from 2009 running OS X 10.6.8. Currently I'm using Photos v1.2 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.1

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 10, 2015 12:15 AM

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Q: Images won't import in Photos

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  • by judysings,

    judysings judysings Nov 11, 2015 12:00 PM in response to cloudy5
    Community Specialists
    Nov 11, 2015 12:00 PM in response to cloudy5

    Hi cloudy5,

    Congratulations on the purchase of your MacBook Air!  There certainly have been a lot of changes to the operating system and photo applications since OS X Snow Leopard, so I can certainly understand your confusion and frustration.  The first thing I would ask, cloudy5, is ... Do you have a Time Machine backup of your iPhoto library before you purchased your new MacBook Air?

    If you do, you might want to copy the iPhoto library to an external drive and continue to use the application you are familiar with on that drive.  You can still access your iPhoto library with all of the organization and edits you have been doing for the past 12 years.  

    When you are ready, you may want to start a fresh, new library on your MacBook Air, make it the System library (see info below), begin using the new Photos application and iCloud Photo Library moving forward.   Down the road, you can gradually add the photos from your old iPhoto library into the Photos app.

    The information below will explain the process of migrating from iPhoto to Photos.  This started with Yosemite, but the info applies to OS X El Capitan.

    Get started with Photos for OS X
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204655

    Take care,